Eva Peroni: Jungled ★★★★

Eva Peroni arrives at the Fringe with a comic voice that feels very much her own. Jungled may ostensibly chart the story of a teenager from Livingston heading off to Costa Rica, but Peroni uses that journey as a springboard into class, sexuality, Scottishness, family, and belonging, approaching each from a delightfully skewed angle.

Her observations are rarely predictable. Growing up in West Lothian, navigating Edinburgh University and finding herself surrounded by considerably posher peers all provide fertile material, while stories of her proudly left-wing family and unconventional upbringing are mined with relish. Peroni has a knack for taking an apparently straightforward premise and nudging it steadily towards somewhere much stranger. Her delivery is distinctive too: rapid, slightly manic and rhythmically unusual, matching the off-kilter way her mind appears to approach the world.

That energy may prove an acquired taste for some, but it is entirely suited to the material. Peroni barrels from one thought to the next with the confidence of someone who knows precisely how far she can stretch a joke before snapping it back into place. The Costa Rican section also begins to reveal something more reflective underneath the silliness, as distance from home forces her to reconsider both her Scottish identity and her sexuality.

Unfortunately, proceedings were cut short by a fire alarm just as that latter strand was gathering momentum. It is therefore impossible to judge the full arc of Jungled, but there was more than enough on display to establish the quality of Peroni’s writing and performance. Smart, eccentric and refreshingly unpredictable, this is a debut from a comedian with an unusually distinctive perspective, and one well worth watching.